woe is me

The stars have aligned, and they are decidedly against me. Tonight I sat down to make the final changes on my journal article (in hopes that I could submit everything tonight) and my computer would not start. At all. I have backup files of the article edits and revisions that I made this afternoon, but I'm at a loss without my computer (I'm typing from J's laptop right now). I don't even want to think about what would happen if I didn't have my computer or its files, especially all of my art history notes and lecture presentations. Yikes.

My future is in your hands, Computer Sonics repairman.

sam speaks

Sam is starting to use lots of different words. He often has his own little variation or interpretation of a word though, so he's best understood through an interpreter. One of his cutest variants is the word for "Papa," which he pronounces as "Bop."

Sam also creates his own variations of baby signs. Sometimes it takes awhile for us to figure out what he's trying to communicate. I think he's funniest variant is the sign for "thank you." Instead of doing the traditional ASL sign, Sam rests his hand on his cheek (and often squishes his cheek against his face).

It's fun to see Sam speaking and mimicking different sounds on command. Here's a clip that showcases some of his latest developments in phonology:



Sam got a little tired of my questions by the time I made this second clip. Our interview got cut short when he decided to bust out some dance moves:

my favorite book

I fell in love with the story of Les Misérables long before I read the actual novel by Victor Hugo. When I was about seven, my Aunt Bee gave me and my sister a cassette tape of the "Les Mis" Broadway musical. We listened to that tape incessantly and always sang along to every part. I think V and I both were convinced that we sounded exactly like Frances Ruffelle, the actress who played Eponine, when we sang. As I got older, though, I grew to love the story and plot, not just the music. I began to love the passion and courage of Fantine, the revolutionaries, and Jean Valjean. Today, I have to say that I think Javert is one of the most interesting characters. "Javert's Suicide" is one of my favorite songs in the musical.

One evening when I was little, I remember I wearing my green nightgown and doing a very lively jig to"Master of the House" in our living room. My mom came in and said that it was a "not nice" song, and fast-forwarded to the next track. I guess she didn't want me to be so enthusastic and excited about the terrible Thénardiers.

I loved that musical, and it definitely piqued my early interest in singing and musical theater. But I have to say, though, that Victor Hugo's Les Misérables is infinitely better than the musical. I read the unabridged version of this book for the first time in college, while I was on a study abroad in Europe. It was so amazing to be in Paris and visit all of the places discussed in the story - I even took a tour of the Paris sewers so I could better visualize where Jean Valjean carried Marius away from the barricade.

Hugo's writing is compelling; he cleverly forms sentences and phrases that catch readers by surprise. He also uses descriptions that seem ancillary and decorative, but then uses these same descriptions later to impact how the viewer reacts to the plot. For example, Hugo describes Fantine as having "gold and pearls [for her dowry]; but the gold was on her head and the pearls in her mouth."¹ This emphasis on gold and pearls becomes important later, when Fantine opts to sell her hair and two front teeth to raise money. I remember audibly gasping in dismay when I read that Fantine sold her teeth, and that "the corners of her mouth were stained with blood, and there was a black hole where her two front teeth had been."² I still shudder each time I read that paragraph.

There are few books which cause me to gasp audibly. When I gasped at such an early part in this story (when reading it for the first time), I knew that this book would have a great impact on me. And it did.

Have you ever gasped while reading a book? What's your favorite book? Do you have a favorite part in Les Misérables (the musical or the novel)?

1 Victor Hugo, Les Miserables (New York: Signet Classic, 1987), 122.

2 Ibid., 186.

martin short as "jerry lewis"

The other night J commented about a SNL "Jeopardy!" skit where Martin Short plays Jerry Lewis. I'd never heard of this skit before. Since I like Jerry so much, I'm surprised that J never mentioned the skit earlier. My favorite part is around 4:04 in this clip, when "Alex Trebek" is trying to get "Jerry" to say the correct question to match the Jeopardy answer. The whole "cannon-ballin-mamin'" mumble is a pretty good JL impersonation.

fall excursions

The rainy weather has started up again, but luckily we've had a few rain-free moments during the past two weekends. Last weekend we went to visit a park that's located on the shore of Lake Washington, and the weekend before we went on a short hike between to lakes. It's been fun to see all of the fall colors in the Northwest, even though I think that Utah's fall colors are prettier. Here are some pictures of our latest excursions:

Phantom Lake
(the beginning of our hike)

Larson Lake
(the end-point of our hike - I promise, there are two different lakes in these pictures)

Several summers ago, J helped to clean up the blueberry fields outside of Larson Lake. The bushes are especially pretty right now with their red leaves.

Exploring at the park on Lake Washington. If you can manage to look beyond my brightly colored windbreaker, you can see Seattle in the background.

I wonder if we'll manage to get more rain-free weekends this year. I admit, I'm not excited for the rainy season to start, mostly because it's hard to entertain a curious, wiggly boy indoors. If anyone has some great ideas for inexpensive/free indoor activities, I'd love to hear them.

the eyre affair

After the first ten pages of reading Jasper Fforde's The Eyre Affair, I realized that I needed to SUSPEND. MY. DISBELIEF. Once I did that, this book was fantastic.

Although this book appears to be set in the 1980s, there are a lot of things that differ from reality. Time travel takes place, people (and characters) can travel in and out of novels, and dodo birds are household pets (they were revived from extinction through genetic cloning). It's quite fun. The protagonist of the novel is a Special Operations agent named Thursday Next. She is hunting for a master criminal and murderer named Acheron Hades.

This book is peppered with witty words and clever references to literature. The thing I enjoyed most about this book, though, is the discussion of Jane Eyre. In order to kill Hades, Next has to travel into the original manuscript of Jane Eyre, which results in Next changing the end of the story so that Rochester and Eyre can end up together (before Next made any changes, the novel finished with Eyre going to India with St. John Rivers).

If you like stories with cultural or literary references, you should pick this up. There are some really funny parts - I laughed out loud when I read about a a Neo-surrealist convention that was invaded by a mob of angry Renaissancists.

I know that Fforde has written a whole series of Thursday Next novels, but two people have told me that they other books not as fun as The Eyre Affair. Has anyone read any of this series? Would you recommend that I read any of the other books?

product of mild insomnia

I have a lot going through my brain right now, and I can't seem to fall asleep. Hopefully if I purge all of my thoughts into this post, then I'll be able to get a good night's rest (from what's left of the night, that is).

• The other weekend J and I watched The Thin Man with William Powell and Myrna Loy. I've wanted to watch this old movie for a long time, and I'm glad that we did. It really is quite funny and it's a murder mystery (bonus!). J and I had a couple of unexpected and hearty laughs during the show. I watched this YouTube compilation of clips from the series, and some of the other films look like they might be fun. Has anyone else seen any of The Thin Man films? Which film in the series should we watch next?
• I think I'll be ready to submit my article by the end of this month. I've done a lot of rewriting and the process has been slow-going, but I'm almost there. I hope that this journal approves it for publication. If not, though, I'll try and send it elsewhere. I'm just glad that I (almost) have a succinct article that is short enough to appear in a scholarly journal. And who knew that my thesis could be condensed to almost a fifth of its original size? Not me.
  
• I met a really nice girl today who recently moved to Seattle. We were introduced through a mutual friend via email, and she came over to talk about job hunting in the area (she hopes to land an adjunct lecturer position and wanted some advice). It was so nice to meet someone and feel like I could connect with them on multiple levels. I haven't really made any close friends since moving up here, although I do have some local friends that I knew from high school/college. In regards to making new friends, though, that hasn't really happened. I have made plenty of casual friendships at church and in the area, but no one with whom I've connected on a very close level. J thinks that we'll never be able to recreate the close relationships that we have with college friends, and maybe he's right. But I'd like to think that I'm not so snobby/boring/standoffish/strange that I can't form a good friendship or two.
• I found out today that my mom has kidney stones. Seriously, my mom does not need to deal with that right now. I hope it ends soon.
• I really, really need to stop dreaming about SC. For the past couple of years, I have consistently dreamed about one of my friends. On average, I would say that this friend pops up in at least one dream per month. All of the dreams are really bizarre, too. It's kind of hard to explain, but I know that I keep dreaming about this friend because it bothers me so much. I think I first dreamed about SC when I was a newlywed, and I must have felt guilty that there was a boy in my dream that wasn't J (even though I'm sure that the dream was not romantic). Anyhow, I think my initial vexation has started this whole dream trend. J thinks the whole thing is a little humorous. I'm just irked with my subconscious.

war and peace

This is the book Sam wanted to read the other morning. Thank goodness. I was tired of reading The Hungry Caterpillar with him.

michelangelo commercial

This is J's latest work project for the new Michelangelo exhibition at the SAM. J worked on the graphics, created the storyboards, and engineered the sound. The commercial will be airing on TV tonight.



Once again, J is famous.

mom and cologne cathedral

I wish I could have visited Cologne Cathedral with my mom. That would have been fun. Maybe another time...

house on mango street

One of the cute MMs recommended that I read House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros. This MM had to read it for her high school summer reading, and I was interested to learn why it was a required reading. It seems like the English reading requirements have changed a lot since I graduated from high school.

This book is a really quick read; I think I read it in less than two hours. The book is comprised of a bunch of vignettes, written from the perspective of a teenage girl in inner-city Chicago. Cisneros is a really creative writer who uses poignant description and interesting word combinations. The flow of this book is also interesting too, since she doesn't use any quotation marks when people speak.

I really liked the 25th anniversary edition that I read, because it contains an introduction by Cisneros that was written in 2008. Cisneros reminisces about her experience writing House in the 1980s. I especially liked her discussion of how each vignette would end. She said that "the stories always insist on telling me where they want to end. They often surprise me by stopping when I had every intention of galloping along a little further. They're subborn. They know best when there's no more to be said. The last sentence must ring like the final notes at the end of a marachi song - tan tán - to tell you when the song is done." (Second Vintage Contemporaries Edition, 2009, p. xxii).

If anyone is looking for a quick and easy read, I'd suggest this book. Has anyone else read it? Were you required to read this book in high school?

the book thief

This week I read The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. I meant to read this book a few months ago, and thanks to Alicia's recommendation in an earlier post, I was reminded of my earlier intention.

This book is about a girl in Nazi Germany who has an obsession with words and reading. She steals books wherever she can find them: book-burnings, the mayor's house, a graveyard. The story revolves around the people in her life and how they are affected by World War II.

This book is great. The thing I like the most is that Zusak is very clever in his writing - he pairs up words and phrases that aren't normally used together, but somehow they fit perfectly. I knew I was going to like this book when I read these sentences early in the story: "Eventually, Liesel Meminger walked gingerly inside. Hans Hubermann had her by one hand. Her small suitcase had her by the other" (p. 28).

If you haven't read this book, I highly recommend it. This is a good book for anyone who loves words/books, is interested in Nazi Germany, or likes clever writing.

Has anyone else read The Book Thief? What did you think?

don knotts

This past weekend, while watching Don Knotts on the Muppet Show, I discovered that J was not familiar with Don Knotts. I was shocked. But now that I think about it, maybe I am the anomaly. Do you know who Don Knotts is? Did you ever watch any of his television shows or movies?

As a kid, I would watch Don Knotts on "The Andy Griffith Show" reruns. I think my favorite show with Knotts, though, is The Incredible Mr. Limpet (see promo photograph above). I often wondered if this movie was made to compete with Disney's Bedknobs and Broomsticks, since both movies were musicals, incorporated cartoons with human actors, and had plots which revolved around World War II. I guess that can't be the case, since Limpet was made in 1964, and Bedknobs was made in 1971. However, I realized this morning that Limpet could have been the Warner Bros. competition for Disney's Mary Poppins, which was also released in 1964. Mary Poppins also is a musical and incorporates live action with cartoons.

On a side note, a new version of The Incredible Mr. Limpet is scheduled to come out in 2011. Johnny Depp is rumored to be working on the film, I assume as Henry Limpet's character. It sounds like it might be fun.

Anyhow, for those of you who haven't seen Don Knotts before, this is a funny clip from The Ghost and Mr. Chicken:



What's your favorite Don Knotts film?

the wanderchew

Sam eats plenty of food in his highchair, but he really loves to walk around the house and munch at the same time. If I hand him a cracker or snack, he'll immediately take off so that he can eat it while he roams around. I've started to call this his "wanderchew." Let's hope that Sam's inclination to roam means that he is a wanderlust - we want to take him on a lot of road trips!

Here are pictures of the wanderchew (which have been taken at multiple points today):

Yes, I realize that he's chewing with his mouth open. Sorry if you're grossed out. But isn't that a happy face?

More intense chewing.

sam likes transportation

Sam loves anything that involves transportation and vehicles. Here are some pictures from this week:

Sam played in his little boat at the mall for about 15 minutes.
He's making propeller noises while looking at the camera.

Sam and his buddy Jack rode in this little train today.
As soon as I put in the quarter in the machine slot, I took this shot of Sam's reaction. He was amazed that the train could actually move.

The helicopter was cool too, but not quite as cool as the train. Our train rides outnumbered the helicopter with a 3:1 ratio.

current thoughts

These are the things I've been thinking about lately:

• Couponing. My friend Joanna has just started to get into couponing, and I've taken some very meager steps to keep up with her. We definitely need to spend as little as possible, so maybe couponing is the answer. I have to admit, though, that couponing can really stress me out. It takes so much energy to figure out the good deals, find/cut the coupons, drive around to multiple stores, buy enough food within our budget, etc. I hear crazy stories about how people feed their family of 12 for only $30 a week, but I don't think I'll ever be that great at couponing. I think my real issue is that I hardly ever find coupons for things that I need. Bah! Why aren't there more coupons for essential things, like milk and bread?
  
• The customs regulations for bringing medicine/drugs into the United States from Canada. (This has to do with my mom and her treatments. By the way, my mom is flying to Germany to (hopefully) undergo a new treatment there. Pretty crazy, huh?)
• My thesis. I've been rethinking parts of my argument, mostly because of the article that I'm preparing for publication. I think I need to take different stance on an issue; I am starting to be swayed by a counterargument. Yikes. It's kind of funny that I'm changing my stance now, especially since I defended my thesis over a year ago. Anyhow, this means I'll need to tweak a few important paragraphs. I hope that my argument can still appear strong and valid.
• I need to start waking up early (as in, waking up earlier than Sam). It seems like I can't get very much stuff done during Sam's naps. I need more time for myself and my projects. And maybe if I start waking up earlier, then I'll be able to fall asleep better at night. I'm tired (literally!) of lying in bed, waiting to doze off.